China Will Accelerate Its “Green Shift”

On March 5, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered government’s work report to the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC). The report outlines the achievements made over the past five years and sets new targets for the year.

If we have a quick digest of the report, government’s ambitions to energy conservation and emission reduction are apparent.

The first part of the report concludes the successful results that China have achieved over the past five years, which indicates “Both energy and water consumption per unit of GDP have fallen more than 20 percent, the release of major pollutants has been consistently declining, and the number of days of heavy air pollution in key cities has fallen 50 percent.”

In terms of the target, in 2018, a goal of “A drop of at least 3 percent in energy consumption per unit of GDP, and continued reductions in the release of major pollutants” also has been written in the major targets for 2018 section.

Several other tasks related environmental protection also have been proposed in the report. As what Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday: “China is confronted with ‘critical battles’ in relieving economic risks and reining in pollution.”

Over the past few years, China has been blamed on its severe air pollution by neighboring countries and regions. The index level of PM2.5 is incredibly high nationwide, especially in Beijing and other major cities. The consecutive smog days made the whole city immersing in gloom, the poor visibility resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Source: Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI)

In order to prevent further climate deterioration, the government has called for action to shift the country’s energy supply to clean and renewable sources.

Cut Overcapacity of Steel and Coal

For intense the strength to weed out coal-generated electricity, China once again expedites the pace in cutting overcapacity of steel and coal. Promised in Li’s report, China will cut capacity in steel and coal by 30 million metric tons and 150 million metric tons respectively in 2018. For years, Beijing is making effort to stamp out excessive industrial production and air pollution. The latest target of 2018 will make China stays ahead of its long-term plans in overcapacity cuts.

Source: Quartz

Support Renewable Energy Industries

As a matter of fact, China has pushed itself in renewable energy industry for years. It has been recorded that the installed capacity of China’s reached 650 million kilowatts in 2017, and has become the main driver of renewable energy growth across the globe.

As promised by Mr.Li Ganjie, Minister of Environmental Protection: “China aims to meet its own ‘interim’ standard of 35 micrograms by 2035.” To achieving the target, the renewable energy will keep being the priority in country’s development, as well as the electric vehicle manufactures, will get stronger government’s supports and benefits.

Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers

The statistics show that 680,000 all-electric cars, buses and trucks were churned out by Chinese automakers in 2017, the figure surpassed the rest of the world combined. Looking at the purchasing side, China made more than half of electric cars purchases in the third quarter in 2017.

In conclusion, while the whole world is suffering the climate change and air pollution, China’s proactive response has influenced global energy markets. The “green shift” of China is striving to transition to clean & renewable energies, which would bring more business opportunities and investment to the Chinese market.

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